Making Cheese – Neufchatel

I’ve been wanting to make cheese for a while now. I finally decided to give it a shot last weekend. Since I’ve been working a lot lately with temperamental, sensitive stuff like beer and cured meats and other fermentations, I decided to forego the beginner projects like making yogurt and lebnah first and went straight for the cheese. If you’re not familiar with any of the concepts involved, I’d recommend starting from the beginning to get a grasp on handling the ingredients, what certain temperatures feel like, etc.

I found an awesome resource online by a guy who actually happens to be from Ohio and teaches at the University of Cincinnati. He has loads of great information and photos on his site – here.

I decided to go with a mixture of half goat’s milk and half raw cow’s milk. I got some liquid rennet from a cheese shop in my area but apparently you can get the tablets at a pharmacy or grocery store. Rennet is what helps the curds separate from the whey. It comes from the stomachs of mammals and contains enymes that help the milk solids coagulate.

I also varied slightly from his syllabus… I decided to scald the milk just to be sure it was free of any extra bacteria although probably not necessary because it was all pretty fresh. After the temperature fell back down to around 70F I pitched the cultured buttermilk and the rennet that I had dissolved in a little bit of cool water.

Mixed that up and let it set up overnight, or for about 12 hours. By the time I checked on it in the morning it had set up nicely and although I didn’t get a proper clean break, I think it was close enough. A clean break is when the curds have set up solid enough that a finger inserted and removed at an angle will produce a clean cut with no remnants sticking to the finger. This cheese seems to be pretty forgiving though and despite not having a totally clean break it seems to have been good enough. I didn’t have time to let it set more but I’d recommend going for the full clean break. If you don’t get it after 12 or so hours, let your curds set for another 12 hours or so. If you still don’t achieve one at that point then you probably won’t at all and need to start over. It probably means there was an issue with your rennet.

So, after the curds have set properly, it’s time to cut them and separate them from the whey. They whey is the leftover liquid that the curds have separated from. Remember Little Miss Muffet? That’s the stuff she was eating right there… she couldn’t even wait for the cheese to be finished!

I’m honestly not really sure why you cut the curds for this cheese other than just making it easier to remove them from the whey. I know in other cases it’s important to have them all be similar sizes but I doubt that it matters much here because it’s all getting mashed back together anyway.

So, after slicing the curds with a knife or spatula or something (about 1/2″ to 3/4″ slices in both directions) the curds get ladled out into the cheesecloth. This lets them drain off as much of the whey as possible to create a nice, dense, creamy cheese. The curds then get wrapped up in the cheesecloth, tied and hung to drip for another whole day in the fridge.

After that, it’s finished! You should mix in some salt at very least and if you get crazy you can try mixing in some chopped garlic, fresh herbs, dried herbs, spices – whatever you want! It’s your cheese, don’t let me tell you what to do with it.

1 quart Goat’s Milk
1 quart Whole Cow’s Milk (you can use skim but the less fat, the less rich your cheese will be…. alternatively, you could use heavy cream!)
2 drops liquid rennet dissolved in a few tablespoons of cool water (or the equivalent from a rennet tablet)
1/4 cup cultured buttermilk (check to make sure it contains active cultures, otherwise it’s useless)salt to taste